Switchfoot: The Beautiful Anything But a Letdown 20th Anniversary Tour

Switchfoot released their album The Beautiful Letdown on February 25, 2003. Now over twenty years later, Switchfoot is going on The Beautiful Letdown 20th Anniversary Tour to celebrate the album that almost never came out and the album that transformed their careers into the band they are today. Earlier in the year on May 5, 2023, Switchfoot released The Beautiful Letdown (Our Version) which showcases the album completely rerecorded in a Taylor Swift style fashion in order to reclaim the songs for themselves. In the rerecording you can hear how the band has matured since the original release of the album and they put their experiences from what they have learned the last twenty years on these rerecorded songs. What is unique about this release is that on September 15, 2023, the band released a deluxe version of the rerecorded album with the original songs covered by 12 different artists including the Jonas Brothers (The Beautiful Letdown), Jon Bellion (Meant to Live), Ryan Tedder of Onerepublic (Dare You to Move), and Tyler Joseph of Twenty One Pilots (Twenty-Four). These artists were able to put their own unique spins on the classic Switchfoot songs that made for an unexpected musical listening journey through the album. It just shows how much this album has not only inspired Switchfoot’s die hard fanbase, but also other musicians who are now some of the most successful artists in the world.

The Beautiful Letdown 20th Anniversary Tour started with a secret show in the band’s hometown of San Diego on August 22, 2023, with the official start date of the tour on August 25 in Sugar Hill, Georgia. It is now October 15 and Switchfoot has finally made their stop at Warner Theatre in Washington, DC. The show start begins at 8:00 PM on the Sunday Evening with Alana Springsteen as the opener for tonight’s show. Alana Springsteen, not related to Bruce Springsteen, is a solo country artist that provided a mellow, stripped back performance that stuck with the audience. Alana Springsteen released her album Twenty Something on August 18, 2023, and it features the artists Chris Stapleton and Mitchell Tenpenny. She is going to be someone to pay attention to in the country music scene. I would not be surprised if she becomes an opener for Taylor Swift in the coming years. Alana Springsteen is very talented and she deserves the best in her country music career. However, it turns out Alana was not the only opener for the show. Switchfoot’s singer, Jon Foreman, came out and surprised everyone by performing a new solo song he had been inspired to write that very day. The song was called “Chrysalis Life”. The song was full of pure emotion and questions like a lot of Jon Foreman’s solo music is. I hope one day it is officially released to the public.

Now, it is time for the artist everyone is there for to perform the songs everyone in the room knows and loves. Switchfoot is known for not having a consistent setlist and switching it up on the fly during the show itself. This may be the only tour where everyone is certain they will be hearing a specific eleven songs during a Switchfoot set. The speakers turn on, lights dim, everyone is expecting to hear the famous Meant to Live guitar riff, but they give the audience a surprise. Switchfoot put The Beautiful Letdown on shuffle and introduced their 20th anniversary celebratory set with their song “Ammunition.”

I will admit, I got very emotional during this show. I think I cried during the three song stretch of “The Beautiful Letdown”, “Redemption”, and “On Fire.” Switchfoot finds a way to put the raw emotion into their performances every single time. Now, it would not be a Switchfoot show if Jon Foreman didn’t climb on something. Jon climbed into the rafters of the theatre to the balcony during the entirety of “More Than Fine” to just sing with the fans in the balcony for a song. Switchfoot through a few surprises into the mix of their hit album playing “Needle and Haystack Life” and “Beloved” intertwined with their songs. After the band played “Twenty-Four”, everything in their discography felt up for grabs. The band started with their hit “Stars” that got the crowd pumped back up and then through a curveball when a random audience member held up a flag with a song request on it. Switchfoot stated since there was no one else requesting any songs that they would play it. To everyone’s surprise, the song was the deep cut from their album Nothing is Sound “Politicians”. Switchfoot then proceeded to play Dark Horses, but was overruled by the crowds chants for their song “Hello Hurricane”. The band stepped off the stage and then gave an encore with their songs “Native Tongue” and fan favorite set closer “Where I Belong”.

I grew up in a decently strict household. I wasn’t really able to listen to music that cursed or rock music outside of Christian rock for the majority of my adolescence. Switchfoot was one of those bands that was in-between and blurred the ones between Christian and secular music. They were one of my first listening experiences into that world of music and The Beautiful Letdown was one of the first albums I owned in that scene. To see the entirety of The Beautiful Letdown performed live brought back some good memories I had forgotten about and it was nice being able to reminisce, especially since my life is about to completely change in a month. So if you think my review may be biased, you would be right. Switchfoot brought the theatre house down with an anthem of hope celebrating an album that has inspired so many people.